The present invention generally relates to a modular connector family, and more specifically to a connector family having common components that may be used in both board mounting and cable applications.
A wide variety of connectors exist today for various applications. For example, connectors are used to join circuit boards, to join cables, to join cables and circuit boards and the like. In general, each type of connector is designed for a specific application, and the overall construction of a connector is both tailored and streamlined for use in a given application. Most applications have different physical design and performance requirements. Thus, a connector designed for a board mounting application is optimized for the constraints and performance requirements of the board mounting application. Separately, a connector intended for a cable application is optimized to satisfy the physical and performance requirements of the cable application.
Once a particular connector is designed for a given application, dedicated tooling is then constructed to produce the particular connector in large volume. In general, the tooling associated with conventional board mounted connectors will be quite different from the tooling associated with conventional cable connectors. Hence, separate tooling must be constructed and maintained for each type of connector. Separate tooling for each type of connector adds to the overall cost associated with production.
A need remains for a combination of connector components that form a connector family capable of satisfying diverse applications, such as board mounting and cable applications with numerous patterns of signal and power contacts.